Sanya's scream pierced the quiet. "Ahh! Ghost crushed the table—save me, Mom!"
Her mother and father didn't react, still staring at the splintered wood in shock. Kamal stepped to the table and grabbed the undamaged corner. He pushed hard, veins bulging in his neck, but it wouldn't give.
He straightened up, breathing heavy. "I don't think even a ghost is that strong. Ankit, tell me quickly about this energy you're talking about, becoming strong by gathering it—everything."
Ankit let out a sigh. "Dad, I've discovered an energy, and I called it essence flow. By using essence flow, I can do things like crushing this table and manipulating objects like telekinesis."
He went into detail about his cultivation journey—from discovering the energy at the hut to the present.
He covered the yellow pixel lights, figuring out how to move them, the idea to gather qi or mana in his body like in novels, no dantian so imagining cores, the calendar with chakras inspiring the root chakra at his spinal cord end, slow gathering at first, the vacuum cleaner sparking the cyclone suction idea, and now his core half full.
His mother and father listened carefully, and even Sanya stayed quiet.
After the explanation, he added, "Dad, Mom, I can tell you this world will surely change because of the energy, and the danger level will be highest for all humanity. I want to become as strong as possible to protect all of you."
Kamal spoke up. "Only you want to protect us? We also want to protect you—you don't have to shoulder that burden alone."
His mother said the same thing, and even his sister gave some comforting words.
At last, Ankit replied, "I know you want to protect me, so I will help you familiarize with the energy and make use of it. But this will be very, very hard—even I got successful after many days of practice."
"We are not afraid of the hardwork," all of them said the same thing except Ankit.
Ankit smiled hearing this. He now had his family, and he didn't have to work secretly. His previous thought cycle was that his family would worry about the dangers, but now instead of worrying, they wanted to face it.
Then Ankit's father said, "Now is so late—why don't we continue our talk tomorrow?"
All of them agreed because they wanted to process this revelation, and immediately went to their separate rooms—Ankit and his sister Sanya in a pair, and his mother and father in a pair.
After coming to his room, Ankit noticed his sister wanted to say something, so he said, "Sanya, what are you thinking? Tell me—are you still thinking that I am a ghost or not?"
Sanya quickly said, "No, no—I know you are not a ghost, you are my favorite big brother."
Ankit was surprised. Why was Sanya sweet-talking? What did she want? He questioned in his heart.
He said, "What do you want to say—say clearly."
After the previous drama, he confirmed that his family's thought process was somewhat different—he didn't understand them. So he directly asked without any guess in his mind.
"Brother, can you really manipulate objects? Can you make me fly? Please," Sanya said with shining stars in her eyes.
She had been thinking about this since she heard about Ankit's powers. Now she asked him.
Ankit first got stunned, then he remembered that Sanya always wanted to fly freely in the sky like a butterfly since she was small. This was her dream, and now she could experience it—she would surely not let this opportunity pass.
Ankit smiled lightly and said, "Why not? I can make you fly in the sky like a butterfly, and you might someday fly on your own. But not now—Mom and Dad have gone to sleep, so we should sleep and talk tomorrow, then I will make you fly."
Sanya agreed, and they both went to sleep.
But the real reason Ankit had not made her fly now was because his control on essence flow was still not perfect, and making a living object fly could be dangerous—Ankit didn't want Sanya to be in danger, so he said tomorrow.
But tomorrow, he and his father would be gone before she even opened her eyes. Then he would go to that hut and would not come home until 5 to 6 days.Ankit then drifted to sleep.
Next morning at 5 a.m., Ankit slowly opened his eyes and freshened up. He went to wake up his father.
He opened the room door and saw that both his parents were still sleeping, so he quietly approached his father and woke him up without waking his mom.
His father, still in his sleep, said, "Ankit, why are you here—go, go, now is so late, why are you still not sleep."
Ankit quietly said, "Dad, now is 5 a.m., and you should quickly go with me to that hut."
Remembering their previous night discussion, Kamal sobered up and sat up."But why now? Let's go at 10 a.m.," Kamal said, because he did not want to travel this early without freshening up and breakfast.
Ankit said, "Dad, the morning is best for meditation, and in the morning, the abundance of energy is many times than day. So let's go now."
Ankit didn't know if the energy was abundant or not—he was clearly making things up because he was excited and also wanted to dodge his sister's questioning.
Reluctantly, Kamal got up, and after freshening up, they both went towards the north in the car.
But before heading out, they didn't forget to leave a message to Ankit's mom that they were going.